1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to silicon optoelectronic devices, and more particularly, to a low-cost, high-efficiency silicon optoelectronic device and a light emitting apparatus using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Silicon semiconductor substrates can be used to highly integrate logic devices, operator devices, and drive devices therein with high reliability. Because silicon is cheap, highly integrated circuits can be formed on a silicon substrate at lower cost, compared using a compound semiconductor. For this reason, silicon has been used as a base material for most integrated circuits.
Based on the advantage of silicon, steady efforts have been made to manufacture a silicon based light emitting device so as to implement a low-cost optoelectronic device that can be manufactured by the general process used to form integrated circuits. It has been experimentally confirmed that porous silicon and nano-crystal silicon have the ability to emit light. So, research on this continues.
FIG. 1 shows a cross-section of a porous silicon region formed in the surface of a bulk monocrystalline silicon and the energy bandgap between the valence band and conduction band in the porous silicon region.
Porous silicon can be attained by anodic electrochemical dissolution on the surface of bulk monocrystalline silicon (Si) in an electrolyte solution containing, for example, a hydrofluoric (HF) acid solution.
While a bulk silicon is subjected to anodic electrochemical dissolution in an HF solution, a porous silicon region 1 having a number of pores 1a is formed in the surface of the bulk silicon, as shown in FIG. 1. In the region where the pores 1a are formed, more Si—H bonds exist than in a projection region 1b, which is not dissolved by hydrofluoric acid. The energy bandgap between the valence band (Ev) and the conduction band (Ec) appears to be inversed with respect to the shape of the porous silicon region 1.
A recession region in the energy bandgap curve, which is surrounded by projection regions and corresponds to the projection region 1b surrounded by the pore region 1a in the porous silicon region 1, provides a quantum confinement effect so that the energy bandgap in this region is increased over that of the bulk silicon. Also, in this region holes and electrons are trapped, emitting light.
For example, in the porous silicon region 1, the projection region 1b surrounded by the pore region 1a is formed as a quantum wire of monocrystalline silicon to provide the quantum confinement effect, electrons and holes are trapped by the quantum wire and coupled to emit light. The wavelengths of emitted light range from a near infrared wavelength to a blue wavelength according to the dimension (width and length) of the quantum wire. Here, the period of the porous region 1a is, for example, about 5 nm, and the porous silicon region 1 has a maximum thickness of, for example, 3 nm, as shown in FIG. 1.
Therefore, after manufacturing a porous silicon based light-emitting device, as a predetermined voltage is applied to the light-emitting device where the porous silicon region 1 is formed, a desired wavelength of light can be emitted depending on the porosity of the porous silicon region 1.
However, such a porous silicon based light-emitting device as described above is not highly reliable yet as a light-emitting device and has an external quantum efficiency (EQE) as low as 0.1%.
FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an example of a nano-crystal silicon-based light-emitting device. Referring to FIG. 2, the nano-crystal silicon-based light-emitting device has a layered structure including a p-type monocystalline silicon substrate 2, an amorphous silicon layer 3 formed on the silicon substrate 2, an insulating layer 5 formed on the amorphous silicon layer 3, and lower and upper electrodes 6 and 7 formed on the bottom of the silicon substrate 2 and the top of the insulating layer 5, respectively. A nano-crystal silicon 4 is formed as a quantum dot in the amorphous silicon layer 3.
The nano-crystal silicon 4 is formed in a quantum dot form as the amorphous silicon layer 3 is rapidly heated to 700° C. in an oxygen atmosphere for recrystallization. Here, the amorphous silicon layer 3 has a thickness of 3 nm, and the nano-crystal silicon 4 has a size of about 2-3 nm.
In the light-emitting device using the nano-crystal silicon 4 described above, as a reverse bias voltage is applied across the upper and lower electrodes 7 and 6, an intensive electric field is generated at the ends of the amorphous silicon layer 3 between the silicon substrate 2 and the nano-crystal silicon 4 so that electrons and holes excited to a high-energy level are generated. The electrons and holes are tunneled into the nano-crystal silicon 4 and couple to each other therein to emit light. In the nano-crystal silicon-based light-emitting device, the wavelength of light generated therefrom becomes shorter as the size of the nano-crystal silicon quantum dot decreases.
In the light-emitting device using the nano-crystal silicon 4 described above, it is difficult to control the size and uniformity of the nano-crystal silicon quantum dot, and efficiency is very low.